Note from Joe: This was first printed as Sir Walter Raleigh Sailing in the Lowlands, a tune about a famous ship The Sweet Trinity that was taken by a fake galley and was recovered. Raleigh was seen as arrogant, selfish and ungrateful. Quite a contrast to the courtier placing his cloak over the puddle for the Queen.
There was a ship that sailed
All on the Lowland Sea,
And the name of the ship
Was the Golden Vanity
And they feared she would be taken
By the Spanish enemy
As she sailed upon the Lowland,
Lowland, Low
As she sailed upon the Lowland Sea.
Then up stepped the cabin boy
And boldly outspoke he
And he said to the captain,
“What would you give to me
If I would swim along side
Of the Spanish enemy
And sink her in the Lowland,
Lowland, Low
And sink her in the Lowland Sea?”
“Oh, I would give you silver
And I would give you gold,
And my own fairest daughter
To have and to hold,
If you will swim along side
Of our enemy of old
And sink her in the Lowland,
Lowland, Low
And sink her in the Lowland Sea!”
The boy he made him ready,
Then overboard sprang he,
And he swam alongside
Of the Spanish enemy
And with his brace and auger
In her side he bored holes three,
And he sank her in the Lowland,
Lowland, Low,
And he sank her in the Lowland Sea.
Then quickly he swam back
To the cheering of the crew
But the captain would not heed him
For his promise he did rue,
And he scorned his poor entreatings
When loudly he did sue,
And he left him in the Lowland,
Lowland, Low
And he left him in the Lowland Sea.
Then quickly he swam round
To the Vanity’s port side
And up to his messmates
Full bitterly he cried,
“Oh, messmates, draw me up
For I’m drifting with the tide,
And I’m sinking in the Lowland,
Lowland, Low
Aye, I’m sinking in the Lowland Sea!”
Then his messmates drew him up,
But on the deck he died,
And they stitched him in his hammock
Which was so fair and wide,
And they lowered him overboard
And he drifted with the tide,
And he sank beneath the Lowland,
Lowland, Low
And he sank beneath the Lowland Sea.